Lord Sugar's not hired when it comes to careers advice

He may be a millionaire tycoon but most jobseekers would rather turn to their
parents when looking for employment advice than The Apprentice star Lord
Sugar.

Apprentice host judge Lord Sugar practicing his 'power pose'

By Alan Tovey

3:46PM BST 02 Oct 2013

Just 41pc of people aged 18 to 25 would ask the entrepreneur for help, compared with 61pc who would seek the wise words of mum and dad.

And despite her new role as the Conservatives’ small business tsar, fellow Apprentice star Karren Brady got the backing of just 14pc who were questioned by totaljobs.com.

Of the choice of 10 famous people to take careers counselling from, second most popular was Dragons’ Den’s Peter Jones, with 22pc, then Ms Brady, followed by Donald “The Donald” Trump at 12pc.

None of the politicians suggested fared particularly well, with David Cameron best at 9pc, Boris Johnson second at 8pc, then Ed Miliband at 4pc. Work and Pensions Minister Mark Hoban polled just 1pc.

After parents, the most popular source of information is the internet, at 48pc. Spouses or partners attract 31pc, and siblings 21pc. Worryingly for official programmes set up to offer assistance, just 6pc said they would turn to a careers centre.

John Salt, website director of totaljobs.com said: “It’s surprising that many young people are turning to their parents for advice. Although parents can be the first port of call for many issues jobseekers have, we have to be aware that hunting for graduate or school-leaver jobs now is very different to the way it was for mum and dad in the 1970s or 1980s.”

The study was released as Totaljobs launches Job Academy, a seven-week internet series following five young people struggling to get on the career ladder. Created by ad agency VCCP, the show tracks the hopefuls as they receive coaching on how to act in interviews and answer interviewers’ questions, and get tips from a professional stylist on how to present themselves best as future employees.